Friday, August 14, 2009

Oh Baby...can you say Carbon?

The new Bacchetta Carbon Aero 2.0 is here! Our first one sold so quickly, we didn't have time to get any pictures. But now we have one in stock and I took it for a short spin. Very nice...here are some initial thoughts:

I have never been a huge fan of the Bacchetta seat plate mounting system. I always felt like the seat was moving under me. But with the Velogenesis seat clamps and tight seat bolts, I didn't notice much movement.

This happens to be one of those times when the manufacturer's listed weight is MORE than the actual weight of the bike. Our medium frame without seat pad and pedals came in at 20 pounds on the nose - 1.5 pounds less than the manufacturer's specs. This could be due to the newer Bacchetta all-carbon fork and the new light weight brakes.

Speaking of brakes - it's pretty much a consensus that the Alhonga brakes work adequately in dry conditions only. Add water or grit, and you lose much of your stopping power. The new X-eyed brake is much lighter and much more powerful! They are designed as a long-reach brake and will work on all Bacchetta models that take caliper brakes. Note, however, that the new CA2.0 can use a standard reach brake.

The first one we built up a week ago was built with the same components as the Carbent HPV pro bikes. It weighed in at 18 pounds 14 ounces - not bad!

I am delighted to have the Carbon Aero 2.0 on the floor as I think that anyone who is going to spend $4500-$6000 on a performance recumbent should have as many choices as possible. Come on in and check it out!

2 comments:

I am not in the price range or the know how for a bike like this, and it might be a dumb question... but I would have thought it would have had disk brakes, or is that just because disk brakes would have been heavier?